Why is it that we can remember some things without even trying, while other things never seem to stick? Martin Shovel examines what grabs people's attention and explains how to make your communications and presentations hit the spot.
Why do we remember some things effortlessly and yet struggle desperately to remember others? It's as if some experiences are covered in Velcro, while the rest are coated in Teflon. What makes this even more frustrating is that many of the most important things we have to remember are resolutely non-stick. Can an understanding of these differences help us make what we say – and write – more sticky?
One of the stickiest and most widely read internet news stories of 2006 came out of Sudan. It instantly caught the public's imagination when it was first reported on the BBC News website. Even today, some two years later, it's still being picked up by various web forums and being emailed across the world.
We might expect a story that has stirred up such interest to be about the continuing genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. Curiously, however, the story – which is historically one of the biggest stories the BBC has ever broken – turns out to have no connection with the complex horrors of Darfur at all.
The original headline on the BBC website says it all:
'Sudan man forced to 'marry' goat'
By contrast, a BBC news report from the same month about Darfur, carried the headline: 'Sudan's Darfur violence worsening.'
When it comes to serious content these two headlines are obviously placed at opposite ends of the 'importance' spectrum, and yet it is the trivial story that stays long in the memory. Why is this?
Concrete versus abstract
Looking at the words of each headline, the first thing we notice is that the goat headline is made up of concrete words – words that stimulate our senses. As we read it, images pop into our mind's eye. There's a 'man'; there's a 'goat' and there's a familiar action word that connects them: 'marry'.
The second headline is different – it is made up of a series of very abstract words. For most readers, even words like 'Sudan' and 'Darfur' are not going to conjure up strong mental images and associations. I suspect that the majority of readers wouldn't even be able to point to where Sudan and Darfur are on a map of Africa. When trying to communicate important and challenging news to as broad a cross-section of people as possible, it is essential to make sure you're not assuming knowledge where none, or little, exists.
The element of surprise
Another obvious difference between the two headlines is that one is surprising, even bizarre, while the other is dull (even though the story behind the headline is tragic). If the majority of readers have little detailed knowledge about the situation in Darfur, the chances are that the second headline will push all the wrong buttons. Stereotypical words and phrases like 'war-torn', 'starving', 'worsening', 'crisis' and 'corrupt' trip far too easily off the tongues of the ill-informed when talking about the continent of Africa.
When we read a headline like 'Sudan's Darfur violence worsening' it's difficult not to respond with a: 'tell me something I didn't know, or couldn't have guessed at'. A headline like this is far too lazy and predictable to do justice to the seriousness of its content. It's as if the journalist responsible for coming up with it has forgotten its function: to attract readers' attention and draw them into this important story.
At the other extreme, it's hard to imagine a much more surprising and bizarre headline than 'Sudan man forced to marry goat'. Where the Darfur headline washes over us barely leaving a trace, the 'goat' headline forces us to sit up and take notice – we feel like we've been slapped in the face by a wet kipper.
What's the story?
The final difference between the two headlines can be summed up by the word 'story'. We all love and need stories. They help us make sense of our lives by enabling us to weave disparate experiences into meaningful, and memorable, patterns.
The more feelings a story provokes in us, the more memorable we're likely to find it. When it comes to emotional triggers, the 'goat' story headline hits the jackpot – love, sex, shock, and that's just for starters.
'Sudan's Darfur violence worsening' is a story too. But the headline is an abstract and predictable one, so it fails to catch the attention that the situation deserves. The creative challenge here for the journalist is to reframe the information in a much less dull and predictable way. It's important to remind ourselves that any situation can be described in a variety of different ways – it just takes a bit more time and effort to find a description that will ignite an audience's interest.
Putting it into practice
If you ever find yourself struggling to remember a speech or presentation that you're giving, it's usually a sure sign that your audience will struggle too. To avoid this, go over what you've written and make sure that the language you're using is concrete enough. Check too that you haven't fallen into the trap of the lazy journalist – ensure that you've framed your main points in surprising and unpredictable ways. And, finally, find a story that will bring everything you're trying to say together – and choose a story structure that has a few surprises up its sleeve.
Read more about the popularity of the 'man marries a goat' story
Martin Shovel helps people bring their presentations, speeches and pitches to life by showing them how to find the right words. Discover more by visiting www.creativityworks.net
